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Asked by the panel chairman Gerry Sydenham if he was on breaks at the force HQ when he sent the tweets, PC Wise replied: “I will have either been in the canteen or the kitchen next door.” The messages were sent between June last year to January.

Asa Anderson, counsel for the force, told the hearing that although PC Wise said he thought only his followers could see his tweets, he used hashtags, and they were all accessible by the public.

An investigation was launched after an email, possibly sent from someone using a pseudonym, accused PC Wise of sending tweets of an abusive, sexist or derogatory nature to sports personalities, TV stars and victims of crime.

PC Wise told investigators he thought his Twitter account was only accessible by his 170 followers, made up of family and friends.

He told officers he had been “absolutely stupid”.

The hearing was told some tweets made it obvious he was a serving officer, including one which referred to him having a role at HQ.

He is also accused of accessing the force intelligence system to look up information on criminals, some of whom he went to school with, without justification.

He is not accused of passing on that information to any third party.

PC Wise told investigators he was a “nosey policeman” and wanted to bring himself up to date after a period off work with illness.

Some of the hearing was closed to the media when it dealt with some aspects of his medical history.

PC Wise, who had served in the Royal Navy, did say in an open section of the hearing that he had mental health issues and was still undergoing treatment.

At the time of the investigation, PC Wise was working in a role at police headquarters dealing with calls from the public and assessing whether they warranted uniformed officers to attend.

The panel has adjourned to consider its findings.

If he is guilty of gross misconduct, he should be fired immediately, the hearing was told.